Surgical graspers are commonly used by a surgeon to grasp onto skin, tissue or other anatomy or structures (e.g., surgical needles and other tools such as amiable surgical lasers) during a medical procedure. The graspers include a pair of opposed jaws that are opened and closed relative to one another with a pair of handles to pinch, or grasp, onto the structure. Traditional manual deflectable/dexterous surgical graspers use separate tension elements to close the jaw members and to change the angle or direction of grasping. The separate tension elements do not affect one another, and are independent. In some graspers, the jaw members are locked by applying tension to one of the tension elements and then anchoring the tension element so that the tension element cannot move relative to a tool body or main shaft.